It was a true SSC kinda day, with winds at 20, rain, full moon, flood tide, AND a frontal passage all at the same time…In textbook Commando fashion, Me, Nick, Mike, and Dustin said screw it, and went fishing anyway…We launched at about 1100, and I found out that this was Mike’s FIRST voyage in a ‘yak…So besides the weather, Mike also has to fight a rippin’ current, all the while trying to fish, dodge dock pilings, and teach himself how to handle a kayak… 

He done GOOD!

The question of whether my brined fiddlers catch fish or not, was answered, once and for all, today. We were short on bait, with only a few live crabs, and two cups of Brined between four of us. I took some live crabs, but I didn’t ever reach into the bucket. I fished the Brined Crabs exclusively, and caught the biggest Sheep of my career so far…

I got a total of four Sheeps in the ‘yak, and had one self release, boatside. I also caught a Toadfish…

Nick stayed hard at work, and managed two keeper Sheep (self imposed 12″ limit), a small slot Redfish, and a little Black Drum.

Doin’ his thing…

Here’s Mike, whose goal was to get himself a Sheep. He did.

And then there’s Dustin, who caught himself a few Sheeps, along with this nice keeper…

About Dead Low Tide, we switched gears, and went across the river into a nasty headwind, to investigate the rest of the inshore scene. I was raining pretty steady by now, and blowing like hell, but we fished on…Pitching Jigs.

Dustin, In a fishing Frenzy, or was it Fishing in a Frenzy…

Dustin got 2 nice Whiting on artificials , and I rounded out my day with this little Rainstorm Redfish…

Mother Nature finally ran us off about 1530, but we didn’t do too bad, considering that we were the only fools I saw fishing, and we probably should have caught NOTHING all day.

Sometimes it pays to GO ANYWAY!

We’ve been wanting to catch something other than Lemons and Blacktips, and on this trip, it happened! On to the report….Myself, Nick, Deano, Ray, and Jarson all met up Sunday at Jekyll Island, Ga. He were hoping to come up with some big Reds, and maybe a Shark or two. The weather was AWFUL, with onshore winds at 20-30, and rain off and on for the entire trip, but we’ve gotten used to that, so to work we went…

Nick had been at Piratefest on Tybee Island the night before, and didn’t bother to change clothes. You can just imagine the looks we got from beach walkers, even the few that came by. They all gave our camp a wide berth…

Got a little Captain in you??

Between us, we had about six big rods yakked out, and several other rods casted for the Reds. This bait was the main attraction, and we figured it would set up a chum line all by itself… Nick ran it out on the 14/0.

A close up..

My baits were not so dramatic, a 2# Jack on the 9/0, and a “normal” sized Ray on the 12/0. Dean and Ray put out some Spanish Mack, and Bluefish baits, and the wait began.

The casted rods got a little action, but no Big Reds showed up. We caught some Sharpies, a couple small Finetooths, and another Stingray for the bait cooler. Deano had a run that looked good to start with, but it ended up being dropped. My 9/0 went slack, and then made a couple bounces, and I had a fish on! This little Sandbar shark was choking plum to death on the 2# Jack Crevalle… 

I caught another Sandbar the same size on one of my casted rods, and he put up a good fight on 15# mono and a Penn 525…Shortly after that, I got another bite on the surf rod, and whatever was on the other end could not be stopped, or even slowed. I got down to about 20 wraps on the spool, locked up, and held my breath. POP! Shock leader knot broke. At least I got all my line back.

The wind howled, the rain threatened, and about 1530 in the afternoon, we’d had enough. We were in the serious stages of breaking camp, and heading for the hotel, with visions of a shower and a nice plate of food, when Nick’s 14/0 goes slack, and the line’s moving against the current…He cranks up the slack, hammers the rod, and it’s ON! Not much pull, just a steady pressure, that’s moving down the beach, right thru the rest of the rods. I get the belt on him, and we begin the over and under dance, clearing the other rods. The whole time Nick’s pulling and cranking, and we end up about 100 yards down the beach, with NO ROPE! I see the end of the leader in the wash, only 20 feet to go, but no fish…Then I see the dorsal fin, and see that it’s a good one. A wave rolled the fish, and I see that it’s a Bull, but I’ve still got no rope, and all I can do is grab the tail, hang on, and rassle him onto the sand!

Man, you wanna talk about a couple of PROUD fellers? We FINALLY got something other than Blacktips and Lemons!!!

Here’s Captain Blood, with his prize!!!

He stole this pose from ME, but the Pirate suit just sets it off, don’t ya think??

The dental work…We got LUCKY, ’cause the hook just popped right out!

And saying goodbye…

Now, check out what was left of that big ol’ Ray that Nick had for a bait…

Pretty well chewed, I’d say.

The Camp Mascot, for this trip..

After that, it was time for a shower, a fine dinner a Zachry’s Seafood (excellent), and Round Two at the beach, behind the hotel…

Round Two was uneventful, other than me me doing my imitation of the Andrea Gale in The Perfect Storm. COMPLETELY up-ended, and flipped straight over backwards, by a wave that the crew said was taller than my Mini-X, which is 9 feet. I had two baits, and 4 20/0 Mustads in the yak at the time, and when I got my head above water, I was wrapped in both leaders. It only took the surf about one minute to beach me, and I emerged humbled, but unscathed. Nick decided to give it a try, and somehow managed to get The Chewed Up Ray back into the water, and so we casted some baits, and bet the evening on the 14/0. Jason got a good run, end ended up nearly getting spooled on a Penn 535, before being broke off. That was the extent of the action for Round Two. We knocked it off about 2230, and went to bed.

Day two, the weather was worse than before, and there was no hope of ‘yakkin on the beach, so we headed to the Sound side, and set up shop there…

We were hoping this shrimp boat would start running back and forth, but he never did…

The current was STRONG, but we got our baits out, and settled. Here’s Ray, taking his first turn at ‘yakkin a bait…

Waiting on a bite, and the storm…

The only thing that bit this morning were these guys. Anyone know if Clearnosed Skates make good Shark Bait??

I just thought this would make a cool pic..

After no runs, few bites, and rain squalls, we called it quits, and went our seperate ways about noon. Not the MOST productive trip of the year, but it sure had it’s moments!

Team SSC, Out till next time.

This report’s a little late, but better late than never, right??Was headed out on Monday for a little surf fishing, and since the weather looked good, I decided to ‘yak out a couple of baits, just for the heck of it. My buddy Jim had secured me a mess of kingfish and barracuda heads from an offshore contact, so I thought this just might be the day…A BIG sailcat head on the 6/0, and a kingfish head on the 9/0, paddled out 200 and 250 yards, spiked up and the wait was on. I surf fished for the “normal stuff” while waiting for the biggun’s to hopefully go off. We caught some whiting, with a few nice ones, here’s Jim with a good ‘un…

He ended up keeping about a half dozen for dinner, and along the way, I ended up with a nice ray, and a ladyfish that went into the cooler for bait.

I just happened to be looking at the 9/0, when I noticed that it was slack!!! Grab the belt, and start cranking in line, about a hundred yards worth, just waiting the whole time for the explosion that never came….I ended up with this guy on the line, and I don’t know HOW he managed to get enough of that kingfish head in his mouth to get hooked…

More a chore than a joy, reeling the little guy in from 150 yds on a 9/0, but hey, it’s a shark!

I also caught this guy, who was not happy….

We knocked it off about 1300, hit the Great Kahn Asian Buffet, and headed home to get ready for the next day’s ‘yak adventure…

Tuesday, I took a couple guys to one of my favorite haunts, at St. Simons Island, for a little ‘yak fishing….

L2KF, BurleyMan, and I were SUPPOSED to meet at 0530, for a trip to Village Creek…We were gonna hit it early, and watch the sun rise. Well, it was 05:17 when the wife punched me in the ribs and woke me up…. I ended up being 57 minutes late, and I paid dearly for my oversleeping. My TOTAL catch for the day was one skinny Trout. I missed several bites, but the Redfish Drought continues for me.

John, however, is another story…..

We had fished hard all morning, hitting the normal spots, and seeing dozens of nice Reds, but they REFUSED to even act like they wanted to bite. It was frustration, times three.

There were a few Trout picked up, a Bluefish, and a self released Flounder by Josh and John, but the bite was painfully slow.

We began to explore some new territory, when John headed up into a little creek that I’ve passed by a bunch of times, and never went in. It was CLOSE quarters, barely enough room for two ‘yaks, let alone three, but here we were, when all Hell broke loose. We were all tossing lures to some visible fish, when Johns reel starts screaming…

We’re all bunched up, a NASTY Redfish running back and forth, up and down, under our ‘yaks, and towing John wherever it wanted to. This went on for about 10 minutes, sheer and utter CHAOS. A Bar-Room Brawl, in the truest sense of the word. Several times it looked as though the fish would win, but John would turn the tables and gain a little ground. We were all pumped, hooting and hollering, and having a ball, Especially when I finally slid the net under THIS GUY, and handed the whole package to John, who was only an arms length away…

A beautiful fish, in the 32″ neighborhood, that John said was by far his biggest ‘Yak Red yet. He was released, and I KNOW where he lives…A place we now call “John’s Creek”.

But John was NOT done yet. As we came back across the same spot, he kind of casually remarks that he’s gonna get another one, and here is the result, dern his hide…

For me, it was a GREAT day, with enjoyable company, and a couple friends who wanted a tour of my stompin’ grounds got some fish for their efforts.

And that’s what’s been going on with the Southern Salt Command…